Area state lawmakers to focus on education at Longmont town hall meeting

Longmont Times-Call

Posted:
04/13/2013 02:04:14 PM MDT

Updated:
04/13/2013 02:24:00 PM MDT

LONGMONT — Longmont-area residents interested in education issues are being invited to a Thursday night discussion of what Sen. Matt Jones, D-Louisville, is calling “Colorado's outdated school financing formula.”

Jones, along with state Reps. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, and Mike Foote, D-Lafayette, are hosting an education-themed town hall meeting from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Longmont Civic Center Complex, 350 Kimbark Ave., Longmont.

The state Senate has approved a measure from Sens. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, and Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, that proposes overhauling the two-decades-old formulas the Legislature uses each year to set state and local funding levels for Colorado's public schools — a rewrite of the School Finance Act that depends on voters' passage of a tax increase that could amount to as much as $1 billion statewide.

That Senate Bill 213 is set for a Monday afternoon hearing by the House Education Committee. Jones said he expects a St. Vrain Valley School District administrator and teacher to join the three area lawmakers for Thursday's town hall meeting review of that bill.

Meanwhile, a separate measure also still pending in the Legislature would establish a $5.5 billion package of 2013-14 state and local public school funding under current state law's School Finance Act formulas.

That Senate Bill 260 has been OK'd by the Senate Education Committee and awaits Tuesday morning consideration by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

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Jones said members of the public attending Thursday's town hall are welcome to ask questions and provide feedback to the lawmakers.

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